Mon, Apr 20, 2020
The most important historic site of Halkidiki, ancient Stagira, is located on the Liotopi, next to the current Olympics. Touring is a real treat. If you want to see them all you know how you will need at least 2 to 3 hours and do not miss the coastal path which is great. Ancient Stagira, a city where Aristotle was born in 384 BC, is located about 500 m southeast of the modern settlement of Olympiada, on a mountainous peninsula in Halkidiki. The city was founded in ca. 655 B.C. by colonists from the island of Andros. Down to the Persian Wars, Stagira was a free, independent and prosperous city. After the Persians retreated, it became an ally both to the Athenians and later to the Spartans until the city was occupied by King Philip II of Macedon in 349 B.C.
A few years after the destruction, however, Philip himself repopulated the city in return for Aristotle’s, tutoring of his son Alexander. Yet Stagira never recovered its former brilliance and it is henceforth mentioned by ancient authors only on a few occasions, invariably in connection with the great philosopher. An enchanting later written tradition records that after Aristotle died, the inhabitants of Stageira transferred and buried his relics inside the city, in a place called “the Aristoteleion”, a large altar was erected on his grave, and an annual festival was instituted in his honour, called the "Aristoteleia". Today, after systematic excavations, configurations and restorations, ancient Stagira is an attractive archaeological site, within a landscape of special natural beauty, next to the local community of Olympiada in the Municipality of Aristotle.